Da Nang to up use of organic fertiliser

Da Nang (VNA) - The central city of Da Nang plans to increase the use of liquid
fertiliser made from organic waste in its farms and public gardens, a local
official said.

Speaking at a review
of a three-year (2015-2017) project on recycling organic waste last week, Nguyen
Phu Thai, Director of the Da Nang Institute of Socio-Economic Development, said
this would help improve urban sanitation and support farmers in the city’s
suburban areas.

The pilot project,
carried out in Hoa Vang district, was funded by the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA).

It brought in
Japanese experts from Kyushu University, Saga University, Environmental
Business Solution Inc and Chikujo town to help identify solutions that can be
applied on a big scale to help achieve the target of Da Nang becoming a green
city by 2025, he said.

The project involved
40 farmers, students and teachers at junior secondary schools, with the latter
playing an important role in raising public awareness of organic waste recycle.

Hoang Thi Ngoc Hieu,
an official with the city’s urban environment company, said the pilot project
could recycle 70 tonnes of human waste from septic tanks in the city to produce
3.5 tonnes of liquid fertiliser each day.

“It’s very positive
solution for dealing with human waste and dung from urban areas and farms. It
costs around 300,000 VND (13.3 USD) to convert each cubic metres of human waste
into environment friendly fertiliser.

However, the city will work with Japanese experts on adjusting the technology
to ensure its smooth application on a mass scale,” she said.

She said public
gardens and vegetable farms could use the organic fertiliser instead of
chemical fertilisers.

Nguyen Thi Thu Hanh,
a staff of Hoa Vang district’s agricultural office, said the district has been
developing as an organic farm zone, providing safe vegetables and other produce
for the city.

“Local farmers wish
to fertilise their farm with recycled organic fertiliser as it can help improve
soil quality,” Hanh said.

She said the
district will build big tanks to contain liquid fertiliser near farms to
facilitate organic cultivation.

The mayor of Chikujo
town, Hisami Arakawa, said the town has 24 years of experience in recycling
human waste into organic fertiliser.

He said the plant
built by the project in Hoa Vang district is similar to the one in Chikujo, and
the Japanese partners will cooperate with the city in improving fertiliser
quality as well as its mass use by the local community.

The mayor also said
that Chikujo had cut fertiliser costs in the town by 90 percent.

Da Nang discharges
nearly 700 tonnes of waste each day, of which 74 percent is food, garden and
park waste, and recycling this can produce energy and save lots of money.

The city reserves an
annual fund of 7 billion VND (333,000 USD) for waste collection and treatment.

The pilot project
enabled Hoa Vang district to be the first locality in Vietnam to produce the
fertilizer under a cooperation deal between Da Nang and Chikujo.

Thai Van Quang, an
official from the city’s agriculture and rural development department, said the
project will help farmers in rural areas reduce cultivation costs.

The project, which
got Japanese funding of 10 billion VND (442,477 USD), included construction of
a liquid fertiliser testing facility, technical training, education on the
biomass circulation system and practical training in Japan.-VNA